My guest is Mike Schade is the Markets Campaign Coordinator with the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), a national environmental health organization that was founded in 1980 by Love Canal activist Lois Gibbs. Lois became involved in toxics issues after finding out her entire neighborhood had been built on a toxic waste dump. Today CHEJ helps communities form strong local organizations in order to protect neighborhoods from exposure to hazardous wastes. Mike has over a decade of experience working on environmental health and justice issues. For four years, he was the Western New York Director of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, where he coordinated community, marketplace and policy campaigns, including the Toxic-Free Legacy, Bucket Brigade and Kodak Corporate Accountability campaigns, resulting in substantial victories for environmental and public health. He also worked for the Buffalo Coalition for Economic Justice. At CHEJ, Mike has coordinated the successful national PVC and BPA Marketplace Transformation Campaigns which has convinced some of the world’s biggest companies to phase out PVC, phthalates and BPA. Ethisphere Magazine listed Mike as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics for 2007 and the PVC Campaign received the “Path to Victory” Business Ethics Network award. He is the author or co-author of numerous reports including the Wasting of Rural New York State-Factory Farms and Public Health, Volatile Vinyl-the New Shower Curtain’s Chemical Smell, Baby’s Toxic Bottle-BPA Leaching From Popular Baby Bottles, No Silver Lining-An Investigation Into BPA in Canned Foods, and Toxic Toys R Us. He has a BS in Environmental Studies from the State University of NY at Buffalo. http://www.chej.org

 

 

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
How Vinyl Affects Our Health and the Environment—and What We Can Do

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Mike Schade

Date of Broadcast: July 18, 2013

DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world.

Even though there are toxic chemicals in consumer products, and in the environment, and in the water we’re drinking, and the clothes we wear, and everything else, there are many people who are working to change things, make safer products, help us take toxic chemicals out of our bodies, and all kinds of other things, so that we can live healthier and happy lives.

And these are people that I’m talking to every day, Monday through Friday right here. And I know that in my own life, reducing my exposure to toxic chemicals has made a big difference for me. And it can make a big difference for you, and for your families.

I am on lots of different lists for inspiring quotes, and I get them every morning—in addition to sending them out every morning too. A couple of days ago, I got this one from Dr. Robert Goddard.

“It is difficult to say what is impossible. For the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

And I can really see that in my own life. I am—how old am I now? Oh, my god. My memory is going. I was 58 years old this year, in June. And I can see in my own lifetime what a difference my life is to now than it was when I was a child.

And in 1960, for example, we didn’t have computers. Nobody had computers. We didn’t have cell phones. There were computers. I don’t know. I guess the government had computer, or the CIA or something.

But we didn’t have personal computers. We didn’t have cell phones. What else didn’t we have? Nylon stockings, pantyhose, we didn’t have all kinds of things that we have today. And I even know that when I started working on toxic issues in 1978, there were so many toxic products and so few toxic-free products.

And now, we have a whole lot of toxic-free products to choose from. And that any of us who choose to not use toxic consumer products can do so because they exist.

And so just because something looks like it can’t be changed right now, or that we need to do something to make a change, doesn’t mean that it can’t happen because everything starts with an idea, a desire, a dream, a thought, and then we put those things into action.

Today, we’re going to be talking about vinyl with Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice.

And what the Center for Health, Environment & Justice does—we’ll probably be calling it CHEJ, is that they can help you and your community, if you’re facing an environmental health risk.

So they work with things like if you have a leaking landfill, food or drinking water, or incinerators, any kind of hazardous waste sites, they can help you with these community things.

Thanks for being on the show, Mike.

MIKE SCHADE: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

DEBRA: Well, first I want to hear, and I want my listeners to hear, how the Center for Health, Environment & Justice came to be starting with Love Canal.

And I remember in 1978, was it, or 1980, 1970-something, the whole story about Love Canal was in the news. But I know that not everybody is as old as I am, so they might not have been there at the time. So why don’t you tell us the story?

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, definitely. Our organization was founded out of the struggle at Love Canal around 1981. But our story goes before it. Our story begins before that.

In way back when, in the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, [inaudible 00:04:21] and other businesses dumped over 20,000 tons of toxic waste into a canal, in the City of Niagara Falls. And back then, we didn’t know as much as we do today, about the hazards of chemicals in our environment. This is, in fact, even before Silent Spring.

Many of the chemicals that were dumped in the canal were some of the most toxic chemicals on the plant docks, and even waste from the Manhattan Project, from the first atomic bomb was dumped in the canal.

And in their wisdom, the land was eventually sold to the City of Niagara Falls for just $1. That’s how valuable it was because they knew that this was a toxic nightmare.

So unfortunately, in their grand wisdom, the City of Niagara Falls eventually decided to build two schools on top of and next to the canal, as well as hundreds and hundreds of homes adjacent to the canal. Many of the families that moved there were first-time homeowners. Many of them were newlyweds that had just graduated from high school and college, and wanted to start their dream homes there.

And so one of the people that lived there was a housewife, a woman by the name of Lois Gibbs, who is our founder and our executive director. She was 27 years old at the time. She had two children. And she had discovered that her child was attending a school, an elementary school, built on top of this canal, so is with 20,000 tons of toxic waste.

So Lois, as a concerned mom, she started going door-to-door because her children started getting sick, and she was wondering whether there were other people in the community that were also suffering from health problems.

And she soon realized that her children’s health problems were not an isolated incident, but many other people in the community were also suffering from health problems, including birth defects, miscarriages, cancer, and other severe health problems.

So Lois, working with her neighbors, they organized a community group, and they forced the government, after years of organization and protests, even at one point, holding two members of the EPA hostage, where they didn’t harm them, but they actually fed them milk and cookies, but they wouldn’t let them leave Lois’ home, they forced the government to close down the two schools and to relocate the entire community of Love Canal.

Over 800 families were relocated from this toxic site. And this was history in the making. This was the first time in the history of the United States that a community was relocated due to a toxic site.

And it really awoken the nation to the dangers of chemicals in our community. And it led to the creation of the Federal Superfund Program which, of course, is the program that cleans up toxic waste sites. And it also raised a lot of awareness among community members from coast to coast that, hey, maybe it’s not such a good idea to build a school on top of, and a community next to a toxic waste site.

And the struggle at Love Canal really helped spark the creation of the Grassroots Environmental Health Movement here in the United States today.

So our organization was formed after Love Canal. At the time of Love Canal, Lois started getting calls from people all across the country that were concerned that, “Hey, I might have a Love Canal type envirometal problem in my community.”

And at the time, Lois had called many other national organizations. And unfortunately, many of them basically just blew her off. While they sympathized with her, they didn’t really have the capacity or the tools to help Lois and her neighbors, until Lois realized that there was really a vacuum in the environmental movement.

So with just a little bit of money in the bank, she moved her family to Washington D.C. t form our organization, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, to assist and empower communities across the country that were dealing with environmental health hazards in their communities.

And since 1981, our organization has assisted over 11,000 communities across the country, very similar to Love Canal, all across the country.

Our organization was really formed out of the struggle at Love Canal back in 1981.

DEBRA: And I so appreciate it. And I’m sure others too that you exist, so that you can help on a community level.

I didn’t know that you’d helped 11,000 communities. That seems like a very large numbers of communities to have these problems, and it makes me look outside my window, and ask myself, “Is that kind of problem exist here in the community that I live in, and that we don’t even know?”

So toxics can be everywhere, and so I’m glad that you’re there to help on a community level.

After the break, we’re going to talk particularly about vinyl, and the toxicity of it, the community. But I want you all to know that Mike, in addition to working for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, has his own long pedigree of environmental work that he’s done and many, many things.

So I’ll tell you about a few of those, or he’ll tell you about a few of those after the break.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and I’m here today with Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. And before the break, we heard all about the history of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, which started with the situation at Love Canal, which had houses built on a toxic waste dump.

But I wanted to let you know that Mike has been doing environmental work, exceptional environmental work, for the last decade himself. He has his own history on some of the things. And if you go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you can read his bio.

But I want to mention that he’s had over a decade of experience, working on environmental health and justice issues. He was the New York director of Citizens’ Environmental Health Coalition. It’s so long.

So he’s coordinated the successful national PVC, polyvinyl chloride and BPA, bisphenol A, marketplace transformation campaigns, which convinced some of the world’s biggest companies to phase out PVC, phthalates and BPA. These are chemicals that I’m writing about all the time, and telling you about.

So he’s the author of numerous reports, including one that I have already linked to, No Silver Lining: An Investigation into BPA in Canned Foods. He’s also done one called Volatile Vinyl—The New Shower Curtain’s Chemical Smell.

And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today—it’s vinyl. And so this man knows all about it. He’s done the research, and he’s going to tell us about it.

So Mike, start by telling us where we can find vinyl. Maybe you should start by telling us before that about what is vinyl, and what’s in it besides vinyl.

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, I’d be happy to. So vinyl is commonly used plastic. It’s also referred to as polyvinyl chloride, PVC. And it’s a plastic that is, unfortunately, the most toxic plastics for children’s health and the environment.

From production to use to disposal, vinyl uses and releases some of the most dangerous chemicals on the planet, including chlorine gas, which was originally used as a chemical warfare agent in World War I, ethylene dichloride, vinyl chloride, mercury dioxins, phthalates, lead, PCBs—the list goes on and on.

So it’s a fundamentally hazardous plastic to me. There’s no safe way to make it, use it, or dispose of it. It’s toxic throughout its life cycle.

DEBRA: I had a question from somebody the other day on my Q&A blog where she said, “I like to wear sandals, and I don’t like the way 100% leather sandals look. So I want to wear the toxic sandals that are sold like at Target. I don’t want to single out Target. Most of the sandals that are made, are made out of vinyl.”

She wanted to know was there a way that she could detox these sandals because it was more important to her to wear this fashionable thing than it was to look at what are the safe materials.

She says, “I have to wear my fashionable sandals.”

And yet, all of these shoes that people love the style of, they’re all made from vinyl. And I want people to understand this—that vinyl is in all kinds of things that we don’t even think about.

So tell us some other places that we might find vinyl.

MIKE SCHADE: So vinyl is most commonly used in building materials. The number one use of vinyl is PVC materials.

So for example, piping—the white piping that you may have in your home is vinyl. The flooring—vinyl flooring in your home or in your kid’s school is PVC. Other examples include carpet. A lot of times, carpet is stacked with PVC.

And so it’s found in all sorts of building materials in our homes. It’s also found in building materials in schools, playgrounds, the linings of windows and doors.

So the number one use of vinyl is in building materials in our homes and schools. Other uses—it’s also commonly found in all sorts of consumer products. You mentioned apparel, so it’s sometimes found in certain clothing items, such as fake leather products like vinyl purses, for example.

It’s also found in consumer products like three-ring binders, vinyl three-ring binders, school supplies and office supplies, plastic paperclips. Those colored paperclips that we often use are vinyl.

Other products include vinyl shower curtains, and even children’s back-to-school supplies, such as backpacks and lunchboxes. It’s even found in electronics products like computers and laptops.

Unfortunately, to manufacturer, use and dispose of this product is nothing short of an environmental nightmare. It’s widely considered to be the most hazardous plastic on the planet.

And when we buy these products that are made out of vinyl, we’re contributing to the contamination of environmental justice communities in places like Louisiana. We’re exposing ourselves to hazardous chemicals like phthalates and lead. And finally, when these products are eventually disposed of, when we throw it out, we’re releasing dangerous chemicals like dioxins into the environment, which eventually, make their way through the food chain and get into our bodies.

So we’re actually contaminating ourselves when we’re using these products, when we’re buying vinyl plastic products.

DEBRA: The other day, I went into a large office supply discount warehouse. And I was looking for a cardboard binder because they had sold them for a while. I could just go in and buy them at the store instead of ordering them by mail.

And they discontinued them. And every single binder on the shelf—it was probably 100-feet of shelving for binders. They had vinyl, vinyl, vinyl binders in every color of the rainbow, and every size, and every single one of them was vinyl.

That just amazes me, that they can’t do better than that.

And I also want to make a point that it’s so important to understand that whatever we put into our bodies comes back—whatever we put into the environment comes back into our bodies because we’re breathing the environment. We’re eating the environment. We’re drinking the environment.

So just because something’s going into the environment doesn’t mean it’s not coming to us as well.

We need to take another break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and we’re here with Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. We’re talking about vinyl—the health effects, the environmental effects, and what we can do to protect ourselves.

We’ll be back in a minute.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, also known as CHEJ. And we’re talking about vinyl, or PVC, it’s also called, and where it is in products, and what we can do about it.

Mike, what’s going on in the market? Are they moving away from vinyl?

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, absolutely. So as we talked about, vinyl is really considered to be the most toxic plastic on the planet. So in response to these concerns, there has been a huge market shift away from the use of PVC. And just about in every major sector of the economy, you’ll see major Fortune 500 companies that have adopted policies to phase out the use of vinyl and phthalates.

DEBRA: What are some examples?

MIKE SCHADE: Among retailers, big retailers like Target and Wal-Mart and Ikea, are working to reduce the use of vinyl and phthalates. In fact, Ikea worked to eliminate these PVCs over 20 years ago, going back to 1992.

Automobile manufacturers like Honda and Volkswagen, even electronics companies like Apple and HP and Dell.

So for example, if you buy a new Apple MacBook or iMac, it’ll be completely PVC-free.

So just about many major Fortune 500 companies are dissing these hazardous chemicals because they recognize that they’re not safe for the environment, they’re not safe for children’s health, and they’re also bad for companies, bottom line, given that there are many countries and governmental agencies across the world that restrict the use of vinyl, or really just chemicals.

DEBRA: Is there a PVC-free list?

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, absolutely. We have been compiling all sorts of information in about both the hazards of PVC and safer alternatives. Folks can visit our website at PVCFree.org, to get involved and learn more.

So for example, in terms of a PVC-free list, every year, we publish a back-to-school guide to safer school supplies, so that parents can identify safer products for their families. We’re actually just about to publish a new list in a couple of weeks.

We also have an interactive website called This Vinyl School, where you can see information about what are the most common products in schools that are made out of vinyl, and what are safer alternatives that we can encourage our schools to use, especially because we know that children are really vulnerable to the health hazards of the vinyl and phthalates.

The good news is that there are safer and cost-effective alternatives that are available, that are safer for our environment, but most importantly, healthier for our children. And if you go to our website, again, that’s PVCFree.org.

DEBRA: I’d like all the big box office supply businesses to carry cardboard binders instead of PVC binders. That’s the change that I’d like to see because as a writer, I’m always needing binders, and I have to order them online.

And people should be able to go into any of these stores, and be able to buy them for their children to use at school.

The children should not be using vinyl binders. Period.

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, absolutely.

DEBRA: It just doesn’t make sense to me that these big companies would continue to sell these toxic vinyl binders when other binders are easily available.

MIKE SCHADE: Last year, we published a study which found that many popular children’s school supplies, including binders, contain high levels of phthalate chemicals that are so toxic, they’ve been banned in toys. Yet, they’re allowed to be put into products like binders that children and other vulnerable population come in contact with.

We have seen some movement in the right direction in the case of binders. So Staples for example, if you go to Staples today, you’ll see that many of three-ring binders that Staples sells are PVC-free. They’re actually labeled as such. Now, not all of them are recycled—

DEBRA: Really? I will go right down to Staples and see.

MIKE SCHADE: You’ll see on the side or the cover, many of them are labeled PVC-free.

Now, not all of them are cardboard, per say. Some of them are made out of polymers or other plastics.

DEBRA: They’re made out of other plastics, but they’re not PVC plastics.

MIKE SCHADE: That’s right. They don’t contain phthalates, which is great. And then also, they’re not chlorinated plastics, so they don’t release dioxins when they’re made, and when they’re disposed of—dioxins being some of the most toxic chemicals on the planet.

So the market is beginning to move away from the use of vinyl in school and office supplies, like binders.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to be done. And one of the things that we’re doing actually this summer is we’re actually in the process of trying to raise money to test more children’s school supplies, like binders, for the presence of phthalates because last year, we found phthalates in 80% of school supplies that we tested.

Seventy-five of them was so high, it would be illegal to sell these products if they were toys. But because they’re not toys, because they’re school supplies, there’s this loophole in the law that allows retailers and manufacturers to continue to sell binders and other school and office supplies laden with these very harmful chemicals, phthalates, which are linked to asthma, they’re linked to reproductive health problems—the list goes on and on.

So we’re trying to raise funding to test more school supplies this summer, so that we can educate consumers about this problem, and how to find safer and healthier alternatives, as you stated.

DEBRA: And if you’d like to make a donation to help them do that, you can just go to CHEJ.org, and I think it will be apparent what to do once you get there, in order to make that donation.

I would like to really reiterate what you just said about the fact that there are laws that will say that to limit a chemical in one type of product, but not limited in another type of product because I don’t want people to hear that they shouldn’t have phthalates in children’s toys—that’s how toxic they are.

And so they may think, “Well, phthalates have been banned.”

No, they haven’t because it’s only for children’s toys. And so they’re still in all kinds of other products. And I think that’s pretty amazing that if it can be established that they shouldn’t be in children’s toys, why is it okay to be in a binder that a child is taking to school?

And I think that that’s something that needs to be addressed on a government level, that if they establish that a toxic chemical shouldn’t be in one kind of product, or that it needs to be labeled, with a warning label on one kind of product, that it goes across the board.

For example, with another chemical, with formaldehyde, in particle board, it’s supposed to have a warning label on it, but as soon as you cut that piece of particle board, and make a table out of it, for example, it’s now furniture instead of a building material, and it’s not required to have a warning label. The exact same material—one has a warning label, and another one doesn’t.

So there really are tremendous variations about how things get regulated. It’s not the same across the board, and that’s a problem we’re facing today.

We’ll be back after this. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. We’re here today with Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. And we’re talking about vinyl, where it is and what we can do about it.

When we come back, Mike is going to give us some tips for reducing our exposure to vinyl in our daily life.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and today, we’re talking to Mike Schade from Center for Health, Environment & Justice. And we’re talking about vinyl—where it is in our homes, how it can affect our health, and how we can reduce our exposure.

So Mike, how can we reduce our exposure?

MIKE SCHADE: Well, there’s all sorts of safer options on the market, as we have discussed. If you go to our website at PVCFree.org, you can download reports and tip sheets for finding safer alternatives.

Just a couple of tips, if you want it, if you’re shopping for back-to-school supplies for your children or students this summer, you should definitely check out our back-to-school guide to safer school supplies that has information on how to find safer school supplies for your children and family.

Secondly, if you’re building or renovating a home, if you’re doing any renovations in your home, for example, if you’re putting a new flooring in your kitchen, bathroom or hallway, skip the vinyl and look for safer materials like linoleum.

Linoleum is a bio-based material, it doesn’t contain phthalates, and it actually lasts longer than vinyl, and is cheaper over its life cycle as a result. And also, it doesn’t require the use of toxic cleaning products to maintain.

DEBRA: What you’re talking about is natural linoleum, and not the stuff that’s just rolled up in a roll, which could be vinyl itself. I think linoleum is a generic term in some people’s mind, but there is something that’s natural linoleum made from—

MIKE SCHADE: That’s right.

DEBRA: [inaudible 00:27:40]

MIKE SCHADE: Exactly. It’s actually a certified bio-based material. It’s made from linseed oil. And it’s widely available. One of the companies that manufactures it is Forbo, and they have a lot of good information on their website there.

So if you’re doing renovations, that’s one place to start. Also, look at other building materials in your home like siding and roofing.

Thirdly, if you have children and they go to a school, encourage the school to adopt a PVC-free purchasing and building policy.

So if the school is doing any renovations, they should avoid the use of vinyl in building materials. They should adopt a green and healthy purchasing policy because a lot of schools buy a lot of stuff, a lot of products like computers and office supplies. We talked about binders.

So if you’re a parent, and you belong to a PTA, you can work with your PTA to encourage your school district to adopt the healthy PVC-free purchasing policy.

We have a lot of great information on our website that can help you encourage your school district to adopt such a policy, and that information is available at CHEJ.org/GreenPurchasing.

A couple of other tips, if you’re buying a new shower curtain for your home, if you’re looking to replace that old shower curtain, definitely skip the vinyl.

We did a study some years ago that found one new vinyl shower curtain can release over a hundred toxic chemicals into the air. So that new shower curtain smell is actually the smell of hazardous chemicals that you’re breathing in.

Today, a lot of major retailers like Ikea, Bed, Bath & Beyond, even Wal-Mart and Target, most of the curtains that thy sell these days are PVC-free. So in searching for a shower curtain, I prefer a PCV-free one.

DEBRA: Yes, I found that. I was renting an apartment when I was staying in San Francisco a few years ago. I rented a furnished apartment, but it didn’t come with a shower curtain. And I was astonished that I can just go down to Ikea and get a completely odor-free, PVC-free, clear, plastic shower curtain. But I think it was $2.

MIKE SCHADE: That’s great.

DEBRA: It was made from EVA, not PVC. And I think that’s one of the best deals there is because it’s so easy.

Some of these things, it’s just a matter of knowing that there’s an alternative. Why would you go buy a PVC shower curtain if you knew it was toxic, and you knew you could just go to Ikea and buy a safe one for $2.

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, absolutely.

DEBRA: And this is a no-brainer choice. We need to have those alternatives. We need to know what those alternatives are. So it’s so great that you’re providing these.

MIKE SCHADE: And if you just want to learn more about this issue, there’s a really fantastic documentary that was done some years ago. It’s called Blue Vinyl.

DEBRA: I have that.

MIKE SCHADE: You do? That’s great.

DEBRA: It’s great.

MIKE SCHADE: It’s actually available on Netflix.

DEBRA: It really makes the point.

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, and I was just going to say it’s available on Netflix, so folks, go onto Netflix. You can just rent that from Netflix, and it’s a great educational documentary. And if you want to educate other folks, you can organize a screening of the film in your community, or for your PTA, or community group, whatever it may be.

That’s another great way that we can all raise awareness, by seeing and sharing that film.

DEBRA: I’d love the way, as I’ve been listening to you talk, I know for myself, my work is very focused on what consumers can do individually. But I love the way that everything that you’re talking about is really pouring into community—how you can get other people involved.

I think that’s the thing that most distinguishes your organization, you really are looking at how toxic chemicals affect your communities, and what can you do as a community, as a neighborhood, to work together to find the toxic chemicals that may be present in your community. And to get them out of community buildings like schools, or hospitals, or hazardous waste dumps, or wherever those things are.

And it’s a whole different level of operating. We do need to be taking care of the toxic chemicals in our homes. I love that your organization is community-oriented because that needs to be taken care of too.

In our last three minutes here, can you just give us some examples of school supplies that are mentioned in your report, so that people can just—if they don’t have time to go look at the site or whatever, and then going out shopping right after this show, give them some ideas of things that they can be looking for, what might be toxic, and what might be the replacement that they can choose.

MIKE SCHADE: Yes, absolutely. And we actually have even a wallet-size version of our school supplies guide that folk can download on our website, so that if you’re shopping on the go, and you’re just looking for quick tips.

So a couple of quick ones—if you’re buying a backpack for your children, and you want to avoid backpacks with the shiny, plastic designs. Those often contain vinyl, and often contain phthalates.

Our study last year found some backpacks containing levels of phthalates 50 times higher the safety standard.

We talked about binders, three-ring binders. We recommend avoiding those that are labeled vinyl. You can buy cardboard, fabric-covered, or polypropylene binders.

DEBRA: Are they labeled vinyl if they’re made of vinyl?

MIKE SCHADE: Most of the time, about 90% of the time, when it says vinyl, it’s PVC. So when it says vinyl, you want to avoid that. Sometimes vinyl refers to EVA, which you mentioned before. But most times, if it says vinyl, it’s PVC.

So generally, when you’re shopping for three-ring binders, you want to look for those labeled PVC-free.

A couple of other tips—lunchboxes are often coated with vinyl on the inside, so look for lunchboxes that are abeled PVC-free. You can also use cloth lunch bags.

DEBRA: Or metal lunchboxes.

MIKE SCHADE: Yes. Those are certainly preferable from an environmental health perspective.

Paperclips—if you’re buying paperclips for your kids, stick to the plain, metal ones. The colored paperclips are usually coated with PVC.

And again, we have a very comprehensive guide on our website that folks can download to identify and procure safer school supplies. And again, that’s at www.CHEJ.org. Check out our back-to-school guide. And we’re going to be updating and releasing the 2013 version in just a couple of weeks. But in the meantime, you can check out our version from last year, which a lot of the products mentioned last year are still on store shelves, thankfully—or still available, I should say.

DEBRA: And I will link to that on ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. You can go there, and go to the archive blog. And all these things that we’ve been talking about, I’ll put links to. So you can just go right to those pages, go right to Mike’s blog page, and you’ll see all that, and you can just click to all these different resources.

Mike, thank you so much for being with us. You taught us so much, and I hope you’ll come back again, and we’ll discuss another chemical.

MIKE SCHADE: Great, I would be happy to. Thank you so much for having me.

DEBRA: You’re welcome.

MIKE SCHADE: I appreciate it.

DEBRA: Thanks for coming. Again, I just want to tell you that you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. There are so many resources there. In addition to having the guest listed for the entire week, you can also go back and listen to all the shows that I’ve done, and there are biographies of all the guests.

You can go to the archive blog. Just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, and click on archive blog, and you’ll see it.

Also, at the top of the page, on ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, you’ll see that there are other links to other parts of my website, and the first one is, it says Q&A. And what that is, it’s my green living Q&A that has more than 12,000 entries. It has 3000-something questions, but more than 12,000 answers to those questions. And I’ve been answering these questions for years.

Also, my readers answer them, and our knowledgeable experts answer them. So if you have a question, it may have already been answered. You can just go at the top of the right-hand column on any page on my website.

There’s a search box just for the site, and you can type in something like vinyl, and everything about vinyl will come up, or you can type in shampoo, and you’ll get everything about shampoo.

So thank you for joining me today. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. And if you enjoyed this show, please tell your friends, and come back tomorrow.